Dear Chase in Twenty Years

The future is always something that people think about, whether it’s what’s for dinner tonight or how the world will look in a thousand years. So today, I’m going to write about what the future will be like in twenty years. I might go a little crazy with my imagination, so everything in here might be a BIT far-fetched. But that’s what I like about this subject, I can take it anywhere I want. To start off, I’ll give a quick overview of what’s happened in the last twenty years, then how life is now. Finally what I think life will be like after twenty years. Oh and one more thing, I will be writing this like a story so keep that in mind while reading.

April 5, 2034

Dear Chase

“Today, the community of the town La Junange decided to host a community project. Any citizen twenty years or over is eligible to write a letter to themselves, twenty years in the past. Just a few weeks ago, a scientist on the outskirts of our little town invented the tool that man has dreamed about for years: The Time Machine. The Scientist decided to hold off announcing to the world the news of his discovery, until he had tested it. Hence, the town’s community event. I personally think the idea is absurd, but I thought I might as well give it a try. So, I guess a bit of a history lesson is in order. Since I decided that I’m going to send this to the date 3/23/14, I’ll start my lesson there.

Nothing of scientific importance happened for the rest of the years 2014 through 2016, but during the year 2017 something extraordinary occurred. Someone had harnessed a new form of energy, known as Zero Point Energy. This energy was clean, long-lasting, and cost efficient to make. The brilliant scientist who discovered this new energy was Brazilian. The scientist wanted to share this energy with the world so everyone could benefit, but the Brazilian government thought it was a threat, so they kept it a secret.

2018 passed without anyone discovering their little secret, but in 2019, America noticed something was up, and dispatched spies to Brazil. They finally discovered the energy plant there, but not the energy itself. America, eager and curious about this new energy, spent the rest of 2019 trying to negotiate for its recipe, but the Brazilian government wouldn’t negotiate. In the year 2020, America officially declared war on Brazil, saying they were a threat and must be stopped. Word spread to the rest of the world, and soon 130 of the 200 or so countries were declaring war on Brazil.

In 2022, the war really kicked off. At first, each country took turns fighting for the energy, but eventually nations allied, merged land, and within a year the world had changed its form completely. There were now 10 “Regions” as they were called. Brazil, now a part of the Peruvian Region, encompassed all of South America, Central America, and parts of the US. The fighting continued for three years, and ravished most of the world.

In 2025, the Peruvian Region now controlled nearly half of the world, and the remaining Regions had merged into one huge Region, known as the Eastern Republic. The Peruvian Region had merged with several other regions to form the Western Republic. The Western Republic, which controlled all of the Zero Point Energy, was winning the war, when a new power from within arose. At first it was a small group, simply known as The Order, but it grew and eventually managed to get a firm hold in the Western Republic’s government. On July 21, 2026, The Order took control of the Western Republic entirely. Right after this, on August 2, 2026, the Western Republic halted their attacks and in exchange for peace agreed to give the Eastern Republic the Zero Point Energy recipe.

Eventually, the last remaining countries on the planet merged into one, solid republic, known as Paxia. It was named from the Latin word for peace.

Now that the world was finally at peace, science began to move forward, and progress. Soon Paxia was distributing food across the world and rebuilding civilization. Due to the advances in science this process was a lot faster than it would have been, but it still took years. By the year 2028, the world was finally back on track.

But in late 2028, Paxia split back into several of its original forms, but this time peacefully. It split into America, Europe, Africa, East Asia, West Asia, Ocstrailia, the last constituting all islands and countries at sea. Although the names of these countries may seem familiar to you, they are now located in completely different places than they originally were. Science continued to climb in the next six years, and the world prospered.”

I stopped writing for a minute to reflect where I was in my story now. What else would I want myself to know about the future? I sat in my home in La Junange, thinking about this. During the war, two small cities known as La Grange and Grand Junction had combined to form La Junange. In the background, I heard the Meal Manager beeping, telling me my pre-cooked dinner was ready. You could call the Meal Manager a refrigerator, stove, and oven all compiled into one thing that cooked your meals for you. But that gave me an idea. I then reached for my old fashion writing tool, known as a pencil, and began writing again.

“That was probably more of a history lesson then you wanted, but it was necessary to tell you about what life’s like now. Today, everything is run off ZPE, or Zero Point Energy. Anyone in the world can use this energy for a small amount of the modern-day currency. It’s similar to what you might call an electric bill, only a lot cheaper. I believe in your time it totals up to about $1.78 a month, but now we use a different form of currency know as Pax, in honor of the former union of countries. But back to the subject at hand… anyone can use ZPE for a few Pax a month. And since everything now runs on ZPE, you can live off about 10 Pax a month. Here are a few of the many new utilities that run off ZPE. The Meal Manager, for one, makes all your meals for you and can replicate all the materials needed. Of course, the traditional way is preferred by a lot of people, but mostly only fancy restaurants can cook food that way. The Mindnet is a new device that allows a user to interface with the internet, but it’s still in the beta testing stage.

As far as life itself goes, not a lot has changed there. I’m sorry to say that people are still people, and are still just as greedy as they were twenty years ago. Although now, we do have better education techniques, more job opportunities, and more safety. The crime rate of the world has been decreased by 50%, and is still dropping.

So in the end, not much has changed, except the bad things have gone down, and the good things have gone up. But one thing cannot be changed over time, and that’s people. We’re still greedy, we still get angry, we still have bad days, etc. Although this is the case now, I personally hope that one day things will get better. But I know no matter how advanced we become on the science side, we can’t take the human out of us.“

The next day, I went to the city hall, and turned in my small diary. I waited all day, when finally they called me up to the stand where the Time Machine sat. I carefully sat my book on the stand, and stood back. There was a growing hum, which continued to grow by the second. The Diary began to glow brighter, and brighter, until finally there was a loud pop and a blinding light. When I looked back, the diary was gone.

It was a cold, spring morning in early 2014, and I had just finished my chores. I was just about to go inside, when I heard a hum, and it began to grow. I turned around, and noticed a light growing on the ground. It grew, and grew, and grew, until there was a loud pop. I looked back, and noticed a book on the ground. I cautiously picked up the book, and opened its cover. I began reading, it started as follows:

“April 5, 2034

Dear Chase …”

I’m sharing this article with the Middle and High School Blogging Linkup

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Chase is a 15 year old homeschooled teen living on Live and Learn Farm. He writes about his interests, hobbies, and homeschool. He is in the 9th grade and is taking: Algebra II (VideoText Algebra), Biology (VHSG/Apologia), Exercises in English and Vocabulary in Action (Loyola Press), All About Spelling, TRISM's History Masterminds, IEW, One Year Adventure Novel.